Eyeing the lucrative world of Asian sports

THE inaugural Sports Matters conference last year was held to lay the foundation for a healthy and sustainable sports industry in Asia. The second instalment, set for Sept 17-18, hopes to build on those conversations and continue to grow the sports sponsorship pie in this part of the world. Some of the speakers on the confirmed list for now are former British track and field star and Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe, Manchester United managing director (Asia-Pacific) Jamie Reigle, and Spanish football club Barcelona's managing director (Asia-Pacific), Xavier Asensi. The delegates from Singapore include Sport Singapore CEO Lim Teck Yin, StarHub CEO Tan Tong Hai and World Sport Group (WSG) CEO Andrew Georgiou. They will discuss everything from the globalisation of sport to tapping the power of social media to reach out to a wider fan base.

In the eyes of Jasper Donat, the CEO of Branded, it was the right decision to base the event in Singapore for the first three editions given how the sports industry here is thriving like never before. Branded is a Hong Kong-based media and entertainment marketing company that is producing Sports Matters along with Campaign Asia-Pacific. BT Weekend caught up with Mr Donat to get the lowdown on the upcoming conference, the work of the new Asian Sponsorship Association (ASA) and his take on the state of the fledgling sports sponsorship scene in Singapore and across Asia.

BT: Why did you first decide to base Sports Matters in Singapore?